We observe the spontaneous evaporation of atoms confined in a bubble-like rf-dressed trap (Zobay and Garraway, 2001). The atoms are confined in a quadrupole magnetic trap and are dressed by a linearly polarized rf field. The evaporation is related to the presence of holes in the trap, at the positions where the rf coupling vanishes, due to its vectorial character. The final temperature results from a competition between residual heating and evaporation efficiency, which is controlled via the height of the holes with respect to the bottom of the trap. The experimental data are modeled by a Monte-Carlo simulation predicting a small increase in phase space density limited by the heating rate. This increase was within the phase space density determination uncertainty of the experiment.
We demonstrate the trapping of cold $^{87}Rb$ atoms in a toroidal geometry using a radio frequency (rf) dressed quadrupole magnetic trap formed by superposing a strong rf-field on a quadrupole trap. This rf-dressed quadrupole trap has the minimum potential away from the quadrupole trap centre on a circular path which facilitates trapping in toroidal geometry. In these experiments, the laser cooled atoms were first trapped in a quadrupole trap, then cooled evaporatively using a weak rf-field, and finally trapped in an rf-dressed quadrupole trap. The radius of the toroid could be varied by varyi…
We show theoretically that by applying a bichromatic electromagnetic field, the dressed states of a monochromatically driven two-level atom can be pumped into a coherent superposition termed as dressed-state coherent population trapping. Such effect can be viewed as a new doorknob to manipulate a two-level system via its control over dressed-state populations. Application of this effect in the precision measurement of Rabi frequency, the unexpected population inversion and lasing without inversion are discussed to demonstrate such controllability.
Recent studies have confirmed the coupling of optical vortices, such as Laguerre-Gaussian and Bessel-Gaussian modes, to quadrupole-active atomic transitions. This interaction has been shown to be enhanced considerably in the case of Laguerre-Gaussian beams due to the gradient coupling, particularly in the case of a relatively large winding number. Here we consider the trapping and the dynamics of atoms in the optical quadrupole potential generated by two co-axial counter-propagating optical vortex beams. We focus on the atomic transition $6^2S_{1/2}\rightarrow 5^2D_{5/2}$ in Cs which is a dipo…
Metastability and long-range interactions of Mg, Ca, and Sr in the lowest-energy metastable $^3P_2$ state are investigated. The calculated lifetimes are 38 minutes for Mg*, 118 minutes for Ca*, and 17 minutes for Sr*, supporting feasibility of cooling and trapping experiments. The quadrupole-quadrupole long-range interactions of two metastable atoms are evaluated for various molecular symmetries. Hund's case (c) 4_g potential possesses a large 100-1000 K potential barrier. Therefore magnetic trap losses can possibly be reduced using cold metastable atoms in a stretched M=2 state. Calculations …
Trapping potentials and quantum gates for microwave-dressed Rydberg atoms on an atom chip
Freie Universität Berlin（柏林自由大学）；Center for Quantum Science and Technologies, FORTH（量子科学与技术中心，FORTH）；University of Crete（克里特大学）；German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence（德国人工智能研究中心）；Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen（蒂宾根大学）
We propose and demonstrate the laser cooling and trapping of Rydberg-dressed Sr atoms. By off-resonantly coupling the excited state of a narrow (7 kHz) cooling transition to a high-lying Rydberg state, we transfer Rydberg properties such as enhanced electric polarizability to a stable magneto-optical trap operating at $< 1 μK$. By increasing the density to $1 \times 10^{12} \rm{cm^{-3}}$, we show that it is possible to reach a regime where the long-range interaction between Rydberg-dressed atoms becomes comparable to the kinetic energy, opening a route to combining laser cooling with tunable l…
We evaluate the impact that nonlinear Zeeman shifts have on resonant radio-frequency (RF) dressed traps in an atom-chip configuration. The degeneracy of the resonance between Zeeman levels is lifted at large intensities of a static field, modifying the spatial dependence of the atomic adiabatic potential. In this context, we find effects that are important for the next generation of atom chips with tight trapping: in particular, that the vibrational frequency of the atom trap is sensitive to the RF frequency and, depending on the sign of the Landé factor, can produce significantly weaker, or t…
The radiofrequency quadrupole linear ion trap is a widely used device in physics and chemistry. When used for trapping of large ion clouds, the presence of anharmonic terms in the radiofrequency potential limits the total number of stored ions. In this paper, we have studied the anharmonic content of the trapping potential for different implementations of a quadrupole trap, searching for the geometry best suited for the trapping of large ion clouds. This is done by calculating the potential of a real trap using SIMION8.0, followed by a fit, which allows us to obtain the evolution of anharmonic…
Using a Direct Simulation Monte Carlo technique, we have studied the time evolution of a cold atom cloud interacting with a time dependent radio frequency (rf) dressed state potential. Exposure of a cloud of $^{87}Rb$ atoms, trapped in a quadrupole magnetic trap, to a time dependent rf-field with increasing amplitude and decreasing frequency, shows a variation in the number of trapped atoms and the overall shape of the atom cloud. It is shown by simulations that, initially at lower rf-field strength, the rf-field results in ejection of atoms from the trap, leading to evaporative cooling of the…
We propose a flexible and robust scheme to create closed quasi-one dimensional guides for ultra-cold atoms through the dressing of hyperfine sub-levels of the atomic ground state. The dressing field is spatially modulated by inductive effects over a micro-engineered conducting loop, freeing the trapping region from leading wires in its proximity. We show that arrays of connected ring traps can also be created by carefully designing the shape of the conducting loop. We report on characteristics of the trap and mechanisms that limit the range of parameters available for experimental implementati…
Confinement of single ions in a novel radio-frequency (RF) quadrupole ion trap with spherical shape is investigated. An optimization of this spherical ion trap (SIT) is carried out in order to suppress its nonlinearity substantially by eliminating the electric octupole moment. Hence, a trapping potential and consequently an electric field very similar to the ideal quadrupole ion trap (QIT) are obtained. Afterwards, three stability regions for the optimized SIT are numerically computed. The regions coincide well with those reported in the literature for the ideal QIT. The reason is attributed t…
Growing and studying large Coulomb crystals, composed of tens to hundreds of thousands of ions, in linear quadrupole ion traps presents new challenges for trap implementation. We consider several trap designs, first comparing the total driven micromotion amplitude as a function of location within the trapping volume; total micromotion is an important point of comparison since it can limit crystal size by transfer of radiofrequency drive energy into thermal energy. We also compare the axial component of micromotion, which leads to first-order Doppler shifts along the preferred spectroscopy axis…
Beams of neutral polar molecules in a low-field seeking quantum state can be slowed down using a Stark decelerator, and can subsequently be loaded and confined in electrostatic quadrupole traps. The efficiency of the trap loading process is determined by the ability to couple the decelerated packet of molecules into the trap without loss of molecules and without heating. We discuss the inherent difficulties to obtain ideal trap loading, and describe and compare different trap loading strategies. A new "split-endcap" quadrupole trap design is presented that enables improved trap loading efficie…
We report on the trapping of ultracold atoms in the magnetic field formed entirely by persistent supercurrents induced in a thin film type-II superconducting square. The supercurrents are carried by vortices induced in the 2D structure by applying two magnetic field pulses of varying amplitude perpendicular to its surface. This results in a self-sufficient quadrupole trap that does not require any externally applied fields. We investigate the trapping parameters for different supercurrent distributions. Furthermore, to demonstrate possible applications of these types of supercurrent traps we s…
We investigate quantum electrodynamic effects under the influence of an external, time-dependent electromagnetic field, which mediates dynamic modifications of the radiative corrections. Specifically, we consider the quantum electrodynamic vacuum-polarization tensor under the influence of two external background fields: a strong laser field and a nuclear Coulomb field. We calculate the charge and current densities induced by a nuclear Coulomb field in the presence of a laser field. We find the corresponding induced scalar and vector potentials. The induced potential, in first-order perturbatio…
We theoretically study trapped ions that are immersed in an ultracold gas of Rydberg-dressed atoms. By off-resonant coupling on a dipole-forbidden transition, the adiabatic atom-ion potential can be made repulsive. We study the energy exchange between the atoms and a single trapped ion and find that Langevin collisions are inhibited in the ultracold regime for these repulsive interactions. Therefore, the proposed system avoids recently observed ion heating in hybrid atom-ion systems caused by coupling to the ion's radio frequency trapping field and retains ultracold temperatures even in the pr…
We report the magnetic trapping of metastable $^3P_2$ atomic strontium. Atoms are cooled in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) operating on the dipole allowed $^1S_0-^1P_1$ transition at 461 nm. Decay via $^1P_1\to {^1D_2}\to {^3P_2}$ continuously loads a magnetic trap formed by the quadrupole magnetic field of the MOT. Over $10^8$ atoms at a density of $8 \times 10^9$ cm$^{-3}$ and temperature of 1 mK are trapped. The atom temperature is significantly lower than what would be expected from the kinetic and potential energy of atoms as they are transferred from the MOT. This suggests that thermalizat…
Complex molecular structure demands customized solutions to laser cooling by extending its general set of principles and practices. Yttrium monoxide (YO) has unique intramolecular interactions. The Fermi-contact interaction dominates over the spin-rotation coupling, resulting in two manifolds of closely spaced states, with one of them possessing a negligible Landé g-factor. This unique energy level structure favors dual-frequency DC magneto-optical trapping (MOT) and gray molasses cooling (GMC). We report exceptionally robust cooling of YO at 4 $μ$K over a wide range of laser intensity, detuni…
In this work, the RF-dressed potentials generated using a static magnetic field of a quadrupole trap and various radio frequency (RF) fields, have been theoretically investigated for trapping and manipulations of cold atoms in a two-dimensional (2D) geometry. It is shown that, in this scheme, the RF fields of some particular polarizations and phases can give rise to some novel static and time-dependent anisotropic two-dimensional potentials which are useful to trap and manipulate the cold atoms in the 2D geometry. The generated time-dependent 2D potentials, rotating on the circular ring, can b…
We demonstrate simultaneous deceleration and trapping of a cold atomic and molecular mixture. This is the first step towards studies of cold atom-molecule collisions at low temperatures as well as application of sympathetic cooling. Both atoms and molecules are cooled in a supersonic expansion and are loaded into a moving magnetic trap which brings them to rest via the Zeeman interaction from an initial velocity of 375 m/s. We use a beam seeded with molecular Oxygen, and entrain it with Lithium atoms by laser ablation prior to deceleration. The deceleration ends with loading of the mixture int…
The response of matter to fields underlies the physical sciences, from particle physics to astrophysics, and from chemistry to biophysics. We observe an atom's response to an electric quadrupole field to second- and higher orders; this arises from the atom's electric quadrupole polarizability and hyperpolarizabilities. We probe a single atomic ion which is excited to Rydberg states and confined in the electric fields of a Paul trap. The quadrupolar trapping fields cause atomic energy level shifts and give rise to spectral sidebands. The observed effects are described well by theory calculation…
A pulsed beam of ground state OH radicals is slowed down using a Stark decelerator and is subsequently loaded into an electrostatic trap. Characterization of the molecular beam production, deceleration and trap loading process is performed via laser induced fluorescence detection inside the quadrupole trap. Depending on details of the trap loading sequence, typically $10^5$ OH ($X^2Π_{3/2}, J=3/2$) radicals are trapped at a density of around $10^7$ cm$^{-3}$ and at temperatures in the 50-500 mK range. The 1/e trap lifetime is around 1.0 second.
The quadrupole interaction between the Rydberg electronic states of a Rydberg ion and the radio frequency electric field of the ion trap is analyzed. Such a coupling is negligible for the lowest energy levels of a trapped ion but it is important for a trapped Rydberg ion due to its large electric dipole moment. This coupling cannot be neglected by the standard rotating-wave approximation because it is comparable to the frequency of the trapping electric field. We investigate the effect of the quadrupole coupling by performing a suitable effective representation of the Hamiltonian. For a single…
We demonstrate trapping of electrons in a millimeter-sized quadrupole Paul trap driven at 1.6~GHz in a room-temperature ultra-high vacuum setup. Cold electrons are introduced into the trap by ionization of atomic calcium via Rydberg states and stay confined by microwave and static electric fields for several tens of milliseconds. A fraction of these electrons remain trapped longer and show no measurable loss for measurement times up to a second. Electronic excitation of the motion reveals secular frequencies which can be tuned over a range of several tens to hundreds of MHz. Operating a simila…
We study the ions dynamics inside an Electrostatic Ion Beam Trap (EIBT) and show that the stability of the trapping is ruled by a Hill's equation. This unexpectedly demonstrates that an EIBT, in the reference frame of the ions works very similar to a quadrupole trap. The parallelism between these two kinds of traps is illustrated by comparing experimental and theoretical stability diagrams of the EIBT. The main difference with quadrupole traps is that the stability depends only on the ratio of the acceleration and trapping electrostatic potentials, not on the mass nor the charge of the ions. A…
The development of the magneto-optical trap revolutionized the fields of atomic and quantum physics by providing a simple method for the rapid production of ultracold, trapped atoms. A similar technique for producing a diverse set of dense, ultracold diatomic molecular species will likewise transform the study of strongly interacting quantum systems, precision measurement, and physical chemistry. We demonstrate one- and two-dimensional transverse laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping of the polar molecule yttrium (II) oxide (YO). Using a quasicycling optical transition we observe transver…
In this chapter we review the field of radio-frequency dressed atom trapping. We emphasise the role of adiabatic potentials and give simple, but generic models of electromagnetic fields that currently produce traps for atoms at microkelvin temperatures and below. The paper aims to be didactic and starts with general descriptions of the essential ingredients of adiabaticity and magnetic resonance. As examples of adiabatic potentials we pay attention to radio-frequency dressing in both the quadrupole trap and the Ioffe-Pritchard trap. We include a description of the effect of different choices o…
We have studied the absorption of a weak probe beam through cold rubidium atoms in a magneto-optic trap. The absorption spectrum shows two peaks with the smaller peak having linewidth as small as 28% of the natural linewidth. The modification happens because the laser beams used for trapping also drive the atoms coherently between the ground and excited states. This creates ``dressed'' states whose energies are shifted depending on the strength of the drive. Linewidth narrowing occurs due to quantum coherence between the dressed states. The separation of the states increases with laser intensi…
This paper presents detailed characteristics of an ultra-cold bright metastable neon atomic beam which we have been using for atom-interferometric applications. The basis of the device is an atomic beam released from a magneto-optical trap (MOT) which is operated with a high intensity trapping laser, high magnetic quadrupole field, and large laser detuining. Mainly due to the complex structure of three dimensional magnetic field and laser beams, a bright small spot of atoms is formed near the center of the quadrupole magnetic field under an appropriate operating condition. We obtained the mini…
We present traps with toroidal $(T^{2})$ and ring-shaped topologies, based on adiabatic potentials for radio-frequency dressed Zeeman states in a ring-shaped magnetic quadrupole field. Simple adjustment of the radio-frequency fields provides versatile possibilities for dynamical parameter tuning, topology change, and controlled potential perturbation. We show how to induce toroidal and poloidal rotations, and demonstrate the feasibility of preparing degenerate quantum gases with reduced dimensionality and periodic boundary conditions. The great level of dynamical and even state dependent contr…
Sympathetic laser cooling of ions stored within a linear-geometry, radio frequency, electric-quadrupole trap has been investigated using computational and theoretical techniques. The simulation, which allows 5 sample ions to interact with 35 laser-cooled atomic ions, revealed an instability heating mechanism, which can prevent ions below a certain critical mass from being sympathetically cooled. This critical mass can however be varied by changing the trapping field parameters thus allowing ions with a very large range of masses to be sympathetically cooled using a single ion species. A theore…
Metastable calcium atoms, produced in a magneto-optic trap (MOT) operating within the singlet system, are continuously loaded into a magnetic trap formed by the magnetic quadrupole field of the MOT. At MOT temperatures of 3 mK and 240 ms loading time we observe 1.1 x 10^8 magnetically trapped 3P2 atoms at densities of 2.4 x 10^8 cm^-3 and temperatures of 0.61 mK. In a modified scheme we first load a MOT for metastable atoms at a temperature of 0.18 mK and subsequently release these atoms into the magnetic trap. In this case 240 ms of loading yields 2.4 x 10^8 trapped 3P2 atoms at a peak densit…
We report the magnetic confinement of neutral, ground state hydroxyl radicals (OH) at a density of $\sim3\times10^{3}$ cm$^{-3}$ and temperature of $\sim$30 mK. An adjustable electric field of sufficient magnitude to polarize the OH is superimposed on the trap in either a quadrupole or homogenous field geometry. The OH is confined by an overall potential established via molecular state mixing induced by the combined electric and magnetic fields acting on the molecule's electric dipole and magnetic dipole moments, respectively. An effective molecular Hamiltonian including Stark and Zeeman terms…
Precision optical spectroscopy of exotic ions reveals accurate information about nuclear properties such as charge radii and magnetic and quadrupole moments. Thorium ions exhibit unique nuclear properties with high relevance for testing symmetries of nature. We report loading and trapping of single $^{232}$Th$^+$ ions in a linear Paul trap, embedded into and sympathetically cooled by small crystals of trapped $^{40}$Ca$^+$ ions. Trapped Th ions are identified in a non-destructive manner from the voids in the laser-induced Ca fluorescence pattern emitted by the crystal, and alternatively, by me…
We report on a simple novel trapping scheme for the generation of Bose-Einstein condensates of $^{87}$Rb atoms. This scheme employs a near-infrared single beam optical dipole trap combined with a weak magnetic quadrupole field as used for magneto-optical trapping to enhance the confinement in axial direction. Efficient forced evaporative cooling to the phase transition is achieved in this weak hybrid trap via reduction of the laser intensity of the optical dipole trap at constant magnetic field gradient.
Trapping of microparticles and aerosols is of great interest for physics and chemistry. We report microparticle trapping in multipole linear Paul trap geometries, operating under Standard Ambient Temperature and Pressure (SATP) conditions. An 8-electrode and a 12-electrode linear trap geometries have been designed and tested with an aim to achieve trapping for larger number of particles and to study microparticle dynamical stability in electrodynamic fields. We report emergence of planar and volume ordered structures of the microparticles, depending on the a.c. trapping frequency and particle …
We report on the realization of an ultracold (<25~muK) mixture of rubidium ({87}Rb) and metastable triplet helium ({4}He) in an optical dipole trap. Our scheme involves laser cooling in a dual-species magneto-optical trap, simultaneous MW- and RF-induced forced evaporative cooling in a quadrupole magnetic trap, and transfer to a single-beam optical dipole trap. We observe long trapping lifetimes for the doubly spin-stretched spin-state mixture and measure much shorter lifetimes for other spin-state combinations. We discuss prospects for realizing quantum degenerate mixtures of alkali-metal and…
We present a novel ultrastable superconducting radio-frequency (RF) ion trap realized as a combination of an RF cavity and a linear Paul trap. Its RF quadrupole mode at 34.52 MHz reaches a quality factor of $Q\approx2.3\times 10^5$ at a temperature of 4.1 K and is used to radially confine ions in an ultralow-noise pseudopotential. This concept is expected to strongly suppress motional heating rates and related frequency shifts which limit the ultimate accuracy achieved in advanced ion traps for frequency metrology. Running with its low-vibration cryogenic cooling system, electron beam ion trap…
Magnetic trapping is a cornerstone for modern ultracold physics and its applications (e.g., quantum information processing, quantum metrology, quantum optics, or high-resolution spectroscopies). Here a comprehensive analysis and discussion of the basic physics behind the most commonly used magnetic traps in Bose-Einstein condensation is presented. This analysis includes the quadrupole trap, the time-averaged orbiting potential trap, and the Ioffe-Pritchard trap. It is shown how the trapping conditions and efficiency of these devices can be determined from simple derivations based on classical …
Low-SWaP Magneto-optical Trap using both Planar Optical and Magnetic Components
Huazhong University of Science and Technology（华中科技大学）；Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics（武汉光电国家实验室）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院）；University of Cambridge（剑桥大学）；Kyung Hee University（庆熙大学）
We report the formation of a dual-species Bose-Einstein condensate of $^{87}$Rb and $^{133}$Cs in the same trapping potential. Our method exploits the efficient sympathetic cooling of $^{133}$Cs via elastic collisions with $^{87}$Rb, initially in a magnetic quadrupole trap and subsequently in a levitated optical trap. The two condensates each contain up to $2\times10^{4}$ atoms and exhibit a striking phase separation, revealing the mixture to be immiscible due to strong repulsive interspecies interactions. Sacrificing all the $^{87}$Rb during the cooling, we create single species $^{133}$Cs co…
We analyze the dynamics of a paramagnetic, dipolar molecule in a generic "magneto-electrostatic'' trap where both magnetic and electric fields may be present. The potential energy that governs the dynamics of the molecules is found using a reduced molecular model that incorporates the main features of the system. We discuss the shape of the trapping potentials for different field geometries, as well as the possibility of nonadiabatic transitions to untrapped states, i.e., the analog of Majorana transitions in a quadrupole magnetic atomic trap. Maximizing the lifetime of molecules in a trap is …
We experimentally and theoretically study the continuous accumulation of cold atoms from a magneto-optical trap (MOT) into a finite depth trap, consisting in a magnetic quadrupole trap dressed by a radiofrequency (RF) field. Chromium atoms (52 isotope) in a MOT are continuously optically pumped by the MOT lasers to metastable dark states. In presence of a RF field, the temperature of the metastable atoms that remain magnetically trapped can be as low as 25 microK, with a density of 10^17 atoms.m-3, resulting in an increase of the phase-space density, still limited to 7.10^-6 by inelastic colli…
We present a method for the creation of closed-loop lattices for ultra-cold atoms using dressed potentials. We analytically describe the generation of trap lattices that are state-dependent, with dynamically controlled lattice depths and positioning. In a design akin to a synchronous motor, the potentials arise from the combination of a static, ring-shaped quadrupole field and multipole radio-frequency fields. Our technique relies solely on static and radio-frequency (rf) magnetic fields, enabling the creation of robust atom traps with simple control via rf amplitudes and phases. Potential app…
Trapping of electrons and $^{40}\textrm{Ca}^+$ ions in a dual-frequency Paul trap
Helmholtz-Institut Mainz（海姆霍兹美因茨研究所）；GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH（GSI重离子研究中心有限公司）；QUANTUM, Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität（约翰内斯·古腾堡大学量子物理研究所）；Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, Sichuan University（四川大学核科学与技术学院）；Key Laboratory of Radiation Physics and Technology of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, Sichuan University（四川大学核科学与技术学院辐射物理与技术教育部重点实验室）；Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics（查理斯大学数学与物理学院）；Delta Q, IMJ Institute of Research & Department of Physics, Moodlakatte Institute of Technology（莫德拉卡特理工学院IMJ研究所量子部门）；Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf（杜塞尔多夫海涅大学）
We have magneto-optically trapped all three stable neon isotopes, including the rare Ne-21, and all two-isotope combinations. The atoms are prepared in the metastable ^3P_2 state and manipulated via laser interaction on the ^3P_2 to ^3D_3} transition at 640.2nm. These cold (T = 1mK) and environmentally decoupled atom samples present ideal objects for precision measurements and the investigation of interactions between cold and ultracold metastable atoms. In this work, we present accurate measurements of the isotope shift of the ^3P_2 to ^3D_3 transition and the hyperfine interaction constants …
We present a moving-trap Zeeman decelerator (MTZD) for use in molecular beam manipulation and magnetic-trapping experiments of paramagnetic atoms and molecules. The 0.49 m MTZD consists of a combination of a 2D magnetic quadrupole guide and deceleration coils, which together produce an array of 3D magnetic traps. The design is based on that of Trimeche et al. with significant modifications. The 2D quadrupole is driven by fast rising and falling square pulses of current (up to 700 A) of arbitrary lengths of time. The traps can be made to move at velocities from ca. 370 m/s down to zero, which i…
A many mode Floquet theory (MMFT) formalism is applied to study the interaction of a polychromatic rf-field with cold atoms trapped in a quadrupole magnetic trap. In this work, the validity of MMFT approach is first established by comparing its results with those of the previously used formalisms for the cases of single and two frequency rf-fields. We have then used the MMFT formalism to calculate the eigen-energies and transition probabilities for atoms in the quadrupole trap and interacting with a polychromatic rf-field. This composite atom-field system has shown some exquisite features such…
